Defending My Top 10's: Part 2

Well, once again, I find myself not wanting to do work, so I'll take some time to explain why I like some of the things that I like. Continuing down the list, I'll cover soundtracks. A few notes I'd like to make here: these are, videogame/anime soundtracks. There really aren't enough movie soundtracks to which I listen with any regularity to make the list, and they would seem somewhat out of place with those represented here. And, once more, I tried to limit things a little bit by including a maximum of one entry per series/composer. Again, while the list isn't presented in any meaningful order, I'll tackle it in the order in which they appear, anyway.

Chrono Cross:
Choosing a favorite from the body of Yasunori Mitsuda's work was a feat. I'm not going to lie. Choosing the best single score from among the Xenogears, Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, and Xenosaga Episode 1 soundtracks isn't fun. For me, Chrono Cross wins out for two reasons:
1. It's largely quite mellow, which is something I enjoy in listening music.
2. Of the soundtracks he's written that hold nostalgic value for me, the sound samplings in Chrono Cross are of the highest quality. With a few exceptions, things sound like real instruments and not mediocre MIDI samples.
Unfortunately for people playing the actual game, the only real dud in this collection is the battle music, the theme that's probably heard more than any other. In any case, the OST itself is a more than worth addition to your music collection.

Cowboy Bebop
I don't know how to begin to describe the body of work written by Yoko Kano for this series. Catchy is really about the best I can do, but that doesn't begin to describe it. The sheer variety of musical styles represented is astounding, and all of it, from the big band jazz and western guitar pieces to the vibraphone march and whacked out electronica is of excellent quality, even if many of the vocal pieces are incredibly derivative of late 90's American pop. Honestly, if you're skeptical and you know anybody who has access to a decent chunk of the soundtrack, ask them to make you a mix of their favorite pieces, and prepare to be shocked by the quality.

Earthbound
Earthbound is a quirky, light hearted game, and its soundtrack fits the mood perfectly. The various battle music tends to be just as odd and captivating as the enemies you'll face, dungeon tracks leave you with a relaxed sense of urgency, and the various town themes will relax all of your fears away. It's really the perfect soundtrack to the game and makes for great listening on its own. I've recently started playing Mother 3 (the sequel to Earthbound which was only released in Japan), and it seems like its soundtrack could accomplish the difficult task of being even better.

Secret of Mana
Few games have soundtracks that do as much to imporve the game experience as Secret of Mana. Though the actual presentation of the story in Secret of Mana is fairly lax, the music does as much to instill a sense of adventure and sorrow as any that I've ever heard. Honestly, if the soundtrack didn't do so much to set the mood, the hours of grinding required to keep all of your weapons and spells up to max level would be next to unbearable. Instead, every time you enter the wild, you feel like something amazing could happen at any moment, and it provides the same sense of excitement to make grinding through text books tolerable, as well.

Okami
Okami's soundtrack is just...good. I don't know what else to say about the general quality beyond this. It's really amazing that audio is just as vivid, energetic, and distinctive as its visual style of this game. It really remains so memorable through the use of traditional Japanese instrumentation and musical structure, which keep it fresh to my American senses.

Shadow of the Colossus
Dramatic is the best single word to describe Shadow of the Colossus' aural component. It takes an excellent and dynamic score to keep your ears as engaged as your eyes when you're desperately struggling to stay atop and kill a moving mountain, but Colossus does it. Swooping scores that swap between movements dynamically, becoming more and more grandiose as you approach your ultimate goal and reverting back down to a foreboding sense of mortal danger as you fall to try again. It really is a treat for the ears.

Katamari Damacy
Seriously, it's just royally fucked up. Random, quirky, and ultimately one of the most enjoyable experiences around describes Katamari Damacy and its soundtrack to a T. Everything from soft techno to rock ballads to mambo to lounge singers to children's choirs make their way into this soundtrack, and I don't know if I could enjoy it more.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
This game really makes the list thanks to the incredible Hyrule Symphony performance. A lot of N64/Play Station era games made the dubious mistake of trying to use "improved" quality Midi samples in their music. Really, these midrange samples sound just enough better that you can tell they're supposed to be real instruments. The fact that they still don't just causes most of them to grate on my ears a bit. Listening to the Hyrule Symphony recording, though, any woes about sound quality in the actual game fly away as I bask in the beauty of Koji Kondo's impeccable work. Everything in the soundtrack is great, but there aren't many tracks in existence that match up to Hyrule Field, The Gerudo Valley, or Death Mountain as heard on this recording.

Dragon Quest V
My favorite Dragon Quest soundtrack, by far. Why? Mostly because the field and battle themes are just so damn good. When the best two songs on an already excellent soundtrack are the two that the player is guaranteed to hear the most, you've done something very right. The little upbeat in Over The Horizon that gives it the deceptive, almost 3/4 feel just gets me every time I listen to it. Seriously, I think I could listen to the track for hours straight and not feel like I was missing anything besides the adventure right outside my window.

Final Fantasy VI
And the dreaded choice arrives. Which Final Fantasy game makes the cut? As much as I love pretty much all of the FF soundtracks, VI gets it for one simple reason. The first 12 minutes of the 21 minute long ending theme. This intricate medley of character themes flows so perfectly and beautifully, and disguises themes so well as it weaves characters together during the escape from Kefka's Tower that I can't confidently say that any piece of game music has been written better. The passage flowing from the Gau's Theme into Celes' and then Locke's chokes me up regularly and the swell from Relm's theme into the nigh unrecognizable adaption of Shadow's theme is absolutely perfect. I want FFVI to be remade on a new console just so that I can hear this piece being performed by a real orchestra. If I were to hear that, I don't know how life could get much better.